Georges Guynemer eBook

the first one, tacking under it and firing from a
distance of ten meters. But the adversary answered
his fire, and Guynemer’s machine was hit:
the right-hand rear longitudinal spar was cut, the
cable injured, the right forward strut also cut, and
the wind-shield shattered. The airman himself
was wounded in the face by fragments of aluminum and
iron, one lodging in the jaw, from which it could
never be extracted, one in the right cheek, one in
the left eyelid, miraculously leaving the eye unhurt,
while smaller fragments peppered him generally, causing
hemorrhages which clogged his mask and made it adhere
to the flesh. In addition, he had two bullets
in his left arm. Though blinded by blood, he
did not lose his sang-froid, and hastily dived, while
the second airplane continued firing, and a third,
furnished with a turret, which had come to the rescue
of its comrades, descended after him and fired down
upon his machine. Nevertheless, he had escaped
by his maneuver, and in spite of his injuries made
a good landing at Brocourt. On the 14th he was
evacuated to Paris, to the Japanese ambulance in the
Hotel Astoria, and with despair in his soul was obliged
to let his comrades fight their battle of Verdun without
his help.

III. “LA TERRE A VU JADIS ERRER DES PALADINS...."[19]

At Verdun our aerial as well as our land forces underwent
sudden and almost prodigious reverses. Within
a few days the Storks Escadrille had been decimated:
its chief, Captain Brocard, had been wounded in the
face by a bullet and compelled to land; Lieutenant
Perretti had been killed, Lieutenant Deullin wounded,
Guynemer wounded and nearly all its best pilots put
hors de combat. The lost air-mastery was
only regained by the tenacity of Major de Rose, Chief
of Aviation of the Second Army, and by a rapid reconcentration
of forces.

[Footnote 19: “Once knightly heroes wandered
over earth....”]

Major de Rose ordered enemy-chasing, and electrified
and inspired his escadrilles. The part he played
during those terrible Verdun months can never be sufficiently
praised. Guynemer’s comrades held the sky
under fire, as their brothers, the infantrymen, held
the shifting ground which protected the ancient citadel.
Chaput brought down seven airplanes, Nungesser six,
and a drachen, Navarre four, Lenoir four, Auger and
Pelletier d’Oisy three, Puple, Chainat, and Lesort
two. The observation airplanes rivaled the fighting
machines, often defending themselves, and not infrequently
forcing down their assailants in flames. Twice
Sergeant Fedoroff rid himself in this manner of troublesome
adversaries. But other pilots deserve to be mentioned,
pilots such as Stribick and Houtt, Captain Vuillemin,
Lieutenant de Laage, Sergeants de Ridder, Viallet
and Buisse, and such observers as Lieutenant Liebmann,
who was killed, and Mutel, Naudeau, Campion, Moulines,
Dumas, Robbe, Travers, sous-lieutenant Boillot,
Captain Verdurand—­admirable squadron chief—­and
Major Roisin, expert in bombardments. The lists
of names are always too short, but these, at least,
should be loudly acclaimed.